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Patterson frustrated with defeat at Taunton

Steve Patterson pointed to a crazy hour on the second morning of the Specsavers County Championship clash with Somerset at Taunton as the reason why Yorkshire slipped to defeat inside three days.

The captain was mightily frustrated to see his side, replying to a first-innings 199, fall from 86-3 to 103 all out, relinquishing control of the fixture.

Unfortunately, from there, they were “outplayed”.

The White Rose claimed three points from their third defeat of the season in 12 matches and can no longer win the Division One title.

They are 51 points behind new Division One leaders Somerset with only two rounds remaining and 48 points to play for.

Patterson and co sit third in the table, a position they are desperate to retain with matches against Kent at home and Warwickshire away to come during the next fortnight.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said.

“Realistically, when we won in the last round of fixtures against Notts at Scarborough and both Somerset and Essex also won, our (title) chances were gone then.

“But, that aside, we came here hoping to win the game and confident we could do it.

“We had them at 80-6 in the first innings, and I thought we were in a strong position driving the game.

“But their young captain Tom Abell played a fantastic innings (66 to get them to 199) and made the difference. That was a crucial stage of the game.

“We started our first innings well.

“But, as has happened on more than one occasion this year, unfortunately we had a nightmare hour. Any chance of realistically winning the game had gone.

“The frustration and disappointment is that we lost six wickets in 40 minutes, and it just kills you. It knocks the wind out of you.

“If you think back to Scarborough against Notts, we lost five wickets for 38 on the first morning and managed to claw our way back in thanks to Jonny Tattersall and Tim Bresnan against a side low on confidence.

“But there’s only so often you can get out of a position like that.

“Against a top team like these guys are, they just don’t let you back into the game.

“They know their conditions well and are a strong team.

“They’re top of the league for a reason.

“They’ve exploited the conditions well and did to us what we did to them at Headingley in our home conditions. They’ve done exactly the reverse.

“They outplayed us and thoroughly deserved to win.”

Yorkshire face Kent at Emerald Headingley in their penultimate fixture of 2019, starting on Monday.

Yorkshire are third and 12 points ahead of fourth-placed Kent, although Hampshire could have leapfrogged Kent at the conclusion of the ongoing round.

Patterson is unclear on the fitness of Ben Coad and Will Fraine, who suffered from illness and a knee injury respectively during the game at Taunton.

“Ben has got a bit of a medical issue,” said Patterson. “We’re hoping it’s not overly serious.

“It’s more precautionary, but we – the physio and our club doctor – felt it was the right decision to pull him out of the game.

“He’s gone back today to be assessed by a doctor.

“You can’t really say too much because I don’t know any more. But we’re not overly worried about him. At the same time, we felt it was best to pull him out of the game.

“Will, as far as I’m aware – and I don’t know the medical terminology, I think his (left) kneecap came out of place and went back in.

“It’s happened to him a couple of times before. Whether it’s effectively dislocated, I’m not sure.

“But he’s done it before, so he’s aware of it.

“It was innocuous. He was jogging around in the warm-ups (ahead of day two) and must have turned funny on it.

“He was in a lot of pain and still is.

“With only three days left before Monday, it might be too soon to expect him to be fit for that.”

Jack Leaning and Matthew Fisher are obvious candidates as replacements.